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Blair Visits Argentina
The faltering Argentine economy topped Tony Blair's agenda Wednesday in the first visit ever of a serving British prime minister to the country, which went to war with Britain in 1982 over the Falkland Islands.
Blair met with President Fernando De la Rua at a luxury hotel at Iguazu Falls, near the Brazilian border, for private talks not an official state visit.
Argentina and Britain restored diplomatic relations in 1990, though the war has left an indelible mark on the long history of close ties between the two nations.
The trip is a clear sign of steadily improving relations between the two countries.
The 75-day conflict began with an Argentine invasion of the South Atlantic islands and culminated with the British driving Argentine forces off the wind-swept archipelago in a decisive victory. About 750 Argentine and 220 British troops died in the war.
Officials from both countries have said Blair and De la Rua would not discuss the thorny issue of sovereignty over the Falklands. Argentina still claims the islands and calls them the Malvinas.
Instead, the meeting was expected to focus on deepening economic links. Britain is now the sixth-largest investor in Argentina, and trade between the two now amounts to about $570 million.
Blair was expected to voice strong support for De la Rua's efforts at turning around Argentina's faltering economy the second largest in South America. Argentina is in the throes of a grinding, three-year recession marked by unemployment of more than 16 percent.
Sweeping spending cuts instituted by De la Rua are intended to slash the country's expanding budget deficit and allay investor concerns about whether Argentina will meet its financial obligations.
Economists and investors worry that an Argentine default on its $128 billion debt could tip the rest of South America into recession, possibly contaminating other emerging markets and further slowing the global economy.
Blair also was expected to stress the need for developing nations to be heard in the debate on globalized free trade, a point he has repeated throughout his trip, which will end with talks in Mexico with President Vicente Fox.
Blair visit comes nearly three years after former President Carlos Menem traveled to England as the first Argentine leader to visit since the war's end. In 1999, Prince Charles became the most senior member of the British royalty to visit Argentina and laid a wreath at a memorial honoring the fallen Argentine soldiers.
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